How long can you remember how to play a song?

Surprising how fast they come back after a little memory jogging (like looking back over some tabs) and then letting finger memory kick in.
 
Someone recently asked me to play an Ozzy song that I used to know really well when I was 13, in 1982, and I have not played that song since around that time. I was able to play it almost note for note, right away. But, songs that I learn now that I'm older will fade from memory in a matter of weeks if I do not regularly play them.
 
Depends on the song. I think any of us could figure out Smoke On The Water and it'd be hard to forget it. There's a Wes Montgomery song I learned back in 2012 that I've started re-transcribing. I'm finding licks and lines coming back pretty naturally.

Even touring bands have to decide on a setlist and sometimes those songs were recorded decades ago. Add to the fact that sometimes even famous artists go through guitar burnout. I read where toward the end of Rush, Alex Lifeson would get burned out on guitar and not play for a year and a half. Then, he'd have to go re-learn Xanadu or A Farewell to Kings because it was 2008 and he hadn't played that song since 1977 or something.
 
Someone recently asked me to play an Ozzy song that I used to know really well when I was 13, in 1982, and I have not played that song since around that time. I was able to play it almost note for note, right away. But, songs that I learn now that I'm older will fade from memory in a matter of weeks if I do not regularly play them.
The ol' cobweb knot gets a bit dusty and stops being as sticky as time goes by....
 
I learned Welcome Home Sanatarium in 1992 all the way through including solos in about 6 hours. Between 1998 and 2019 I hadn’t played iit even once and then played it just fine, Yet in learning Classical guitar this past year I put ablut 100 hours into Leo Brouwer: Ballade de la Demoiselle Amoruesse and will forget it after a week of not practice. And its a song I’m in love with. Go figure,
 
I used to play a lot of acoustic covers, and can still play and sing around 150 songs from memory, but I need a list of songs to remember which songs I know. lol

Sometimes I'll blank out on the first line though, and if that happens the whole thing is screwed. I can't recite the lyrics without the music either, it's weird. Seems to all be a "muscle memory" kind of thing with me.

When it comes to the stuff I'm learning and playing these days, I have the same issue as most of you guys seem to have. Have to play them regularly or the memory fades.
 
Back
Top Bottom